The Crusader, Paul Kengor
The Crusader, Paul Kengor
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The Crusader
Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism

Author: Paul Kengor

Narrator: John Pruden

Unabridged: 13 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 02/22/2011


Synopsis

The inspiration for the upcoming film Reagan starring Dennis Quaid and directed by Sean McNamara“Combining the skills of great story-telling with his commitment to scholarly detail, Paul Kengor has written an important book that also makes for a fascinating read. The Crusader will not only entertain and inform, it will change minds.” — Peter Schweizer, bestselling author of Blood Money, Red-Handed, and Reagan's WarBased on extraordinary research, The Crusader is a major reassessment of Ronald Reagan's lifelong campaign to dismantle the Soviet EmpireGod and Ronald Reagan made presidential historian Paul Kengor one of the premier chroniclers of the life and career of the 40th president. With The Crusader, Kengor returns with the one book about Reagan that has not been written: The story of his lifelong crusade against communism, and of his dogged—and ultimately triumphant—effort to overthrow the Soviet Union.Drawing upon reams of newly declassified presidential papers, as well as untapped Soviet media archives and new interviews with key players, Kengor traces Reagan's efforts to target the Soviet Union from his days as governor of California to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of what he famously dubbed the ""Evil Empire."" The result is a major revision and enhancement of what historians are only beginning to realize: That Reagan not only wished for the collapse of communism, but had a deep and specific understanding of what it would take––and effected dozens of policy shifts that brought the USSR to its heels within a decade of his presidency.The Crusader makes use of key sources from behind the Iron Curtain, including one key memo that implicates a major American liberal politician in a scheme to enlist Soviet premier Yuri Andropov to help defeat Reagan's 1984 reelection bid. Such finds make The Crusader not just a work of extraordinary history, but a work of explosive revelation.

About Paul Kengor

Paul Kengor is the author of the New York Times extended-list bestseller God and Ronald Reagan as well as God and George W. Bush and The Crusader. He is a professor of political science and director of the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College. He lives with his wife and children in Grove City, Pennsylvania.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bojan on April 07, 2011

A few years back, I was having an argument with a (rather liberal) friend of mine about the collapse of European communism. We are both from Europe, but we grew up on different sides of the East-West divide. His was what I came to understand the conventional view of people on the left: the communism......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on December 01, 2009

To all who feel Ronald Reagan was a sweet talking, below average intelligent dolt whose only role in ending the Cold War was simply being in the right place at the right time, read this book! You are wrong! Through meticulous and broad research using dozens of recently declassified documents from bo......more

Goodreads review by Cliff on September 17, 2013

Paul Kengor, a professor at Grove City College, has written a number of books, and I've enjoyed each one of them. He's excellent at writing biographic sketches of people, backed by good academic work, but doing an excellent job of discussing the actual person, as a person, and what made them tick. T......more

Goodreads review by Nathan on January 23, 2025

Well-researched and very informative.......more

Goodreads review by Mark on November 05, 2023

Great read about a great man!!......more